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Push coming to shove in rush to budget
HARRISBURG - Within a matter of days, Pennsylvanians could find that their cash-strapped mass transit systems are being bailed out, tolls are in the works for Interstate 80 and more money is on the way for biotech research and clean energy development.
Then again, they may still be waiting to see who will blink first in the Legislature's annual mad rush to pass a state budget before the summer recess.
House Democrats have scheduled votes for Monday and Tuesday that would accomplish much of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's ambitious agenda. If things go the Democrats' way - and with a one-seat margin, that's no sure thing - the stage would be set for a showdown between Rendell and the Republican-controlled state Senate.
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After negotiations in recent days over a multibillion dollar fix for transportation and mass transit, some sort of bill is expected to hit the House floor Monday morning.
"We're not going to go home until we get transit addressed," Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Philadelphia, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said after debate on one plan ended inconclusively Thursday night.
The linchpin would be adding tolls to Interstate 80 - where three out of every four vehicles is from out of state - while somehow exempting local drivers. Democrats also want to require local governments to put more of their own money into transit in order to qualify for larger state subsidies.
On Friday, Senate GOP leaders said they were glad the debate had shifted away from Rendell's proposals to tax oil company profits or lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike, calling the latest plan "a very positive step."
But is there time this week to pass a massive transportation initiative?
"The challenge is to get these ideas, even if they are good ideas, the kind of thorough airing they need before we make sweeping changes to transportation funding in Pennsylvania," said Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware.
Senate and House Republicans want to focus on a stripped-down spending plan that passed the Senate 49-1.
"What are they waiting for?" said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson. "Is it their goal to shut down government?"
House votes are also planned for early this week on remaining elements of Rendell's Energy Independence Strategy, the half-billion dollars he wants to borrow to establish the Jonas Salk Legacy Fund as a biotechnology incubator and elements of his Prescription for Pennsylvania health-care package.
Pileggi said Republicans are concerned about the level of borrowing.
"I think the central component should be the core budget so we know that governmental functions - schools, corrections, public welfare - are adequately funded and funded on time and work from there," he said.
Michael Masch, Rendell's budget secretary, said the governor also will be looking at the entire package to determine if it makes sufficient "substantial" progress toward meeting the state's needs.
"Sure, we could cut taxes in half if we didn't need to educate our school kids, protect the mentally retarded, clean up the environment," he said. "We could have a very tiny budget. We think that both chambers are debating about the right issues, and hopefully we will come to some reasonable compromise."
The House probably will authorize further study on the most politically sensitive part of Rendell's health-care plan, an assessment on employers who do not offer health insurance to their workers, said Mike Manzo, chief of staff to Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Waynes-burg.
Masch said Rendell also wants to see evidence that legislators are committed to moving toward the governor's goal of extending coverage to the 750,000 adult Pennsylvanians without health insurance.
The House also may consider moving the date of the April presidential primary a month or two earlier to give Pennsylvania voters more influence over the selection of party nominees. Votes also could occur in both chambers on a statewide smoking ban.
The new fiscal year starts Sunday. Without a budget by then, furloughs could hit some 26,000 state workers, something often threatened but rarely seen.
"It is in no one's interests to create a shutdown," said Penn State Harrisburg's Peterson. "It's in everybody's interest to keep things going while discussions continue and sides try to work something out."
